There is a known technique of a mobile core network, which is a large-scale communication network that connects base stations in a mobile phone network or the like or telecom carriers. Each node executing a necessary function in such a mobile core network is configured, for example, on a blade server system for communication equipment. A function executed by each node is the session connecting function, the load balancing function and so on.
The blade server system has redundant power supplies and redundant network wiring in order to increase reliability as a communication network device. Moreover, the blade server system has redundant blade servers operating therein, and the blade servers are divided into active or standby. Such a blade server system is configured to, in case of occurrence of a failure such as power-off in an active system, carry over processing to a standby system connected to a different power supply from a power supply connected to the active system.
Moreover, in the blade server system having the plurality of functions described above, a function which each of the blade servers is to execute is assigned to the blade server. To be specific, a predetermined function is assigned to identification information of hardware of each of the blade servers. For example, the session connecting function is assigned to identification information of one of the blade servers, and the load balancing function is assigned to identification information of another one of the blade servers. Each of the blade servers specifies a function assigned thereto from identification information of the blade server and executes the function.
Further, there is a known technique of utilizing a server virtualizing an active system and a server virtualizing a standby system, by using a virtualization technique for effectively using hardware resources.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2009-157785
However, in such a blade server system in which a function is assigned to each of the blade servers as described above, in a case where the blade server is virtualized, execution of the function assigned to the blade server may be difficult. For example, because a server device performing virtualization activates a plurality of virtual machines on the server device, any of the virtual machines may be unable to specify a function which the virtual machine is to execute from identification information of hardware of the server device and may be unable to execute the function. As a result, the blade server system described above has a problem that virtualization of the blade servers is difficult and hardware resources cannot be effectively used.